Songbook find at op shop

Subject: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 12:35 AM

Yesterday I was trawling around an op shop (thrift shop for those not versed in Ozziespeak) and bought an ex-library copy of "Everyman's book of English country songs", edited by Roy Palmer, 1979, for only $3 Ozzie. The songs really conjure up a way of life long gone!

I don't really know much of these songs. Is the book a gem, worth hanging onto?

Cheers
Jennie

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 02:46 AM

Alibris says:

Everyman's Book of English Country Songs
by Palmer, Roy (Editor)
price: $26.00
Ships from BC, CANADA
Binding: Hardcover Publisher: J.M. Dent (London, Melbourne & Toronto), 1979.
Description: 256 pp. Illustrations, sources and notes, index. Includes 147 songs, some well known, others appearing in print for the first time. Hardcover in dj. A nice copy with no clipping or previous owner inscriptions. VG/VG."

Several copies available there at slightly varying prices. Other dealers in used books have similar listings.

Apparently the book is known - but no indication whether it's greatly loved.

John

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 03:25 AM

Hi, Jennie-
I doubt that your book is rare or valuable, but if it's by Roy Palmer, it's bound to be good. Palmer is a prolific editor of songbooks, and his work enjoys a good reputation. Many of his books have more than one title - I'm betting your book is the same as my paperback English Country Songbook - is "Bold Turpin" song #45? Is "Ploughman's Glory" #70?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 06:32 AM

That's it indeed, Joe. I wasn't thinking of selling, but I didn't know the book at all so wasn't sure whether to hang to it or re-donate it back to the charity shop from whence it came. I shall hang onto it and learn some of the songs - I already know a few.

I love op shopping and have picked up many a bargain, occasional musical.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 07:09 AM

JennieG
It is worth looking out for 'Country Songs' companion volume 'The Everyman Book of British Ballads' also by Roy Palmer.
Roy's output is tremendous and he has added a large number of extremely worthwhile and enjoyable books to the subject of folksong.
Happy shopping
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 09:12 AM

well, my Good Buy was not from an op shop, but from a crate of second-hand song & folklore books at the Bush Traditions Gathering on the weekend.

I now have Vol.1, no.1, Summer 1956, of Singabout, the magazine of the Bush Music Club! Wot a treasure & according to the on-line book sites the $10 I paid was below the normal prices for copies of Singabout & they only sell later editions, including very recent ones edited by Bob Bolton. Folks can buy these current issues directly from us (BMC) for far less than the booksellers ask, too. Why, we even have a few copies of some old 1950's & 60's Singabouts, so we could make a fortune!

more copies, some in USA!!

sandra

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 12:56 AM

Actually, not books, but I did score a violin (with the original store name sticker on the case - so I know the quality!) but also an 80s model electronic keyboard for a handful of dollars each at a tip shop. You CAN be lucky!

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 02:59 PM

I found hard cover of The New National and Folk Song Book Part 2, Desmond MacMahon in an RNIB Charity Shop for £4 a few years ago. I love it, not the least for the little information bytes dropped in here and there and the definition of some words in Scottish songs.
I am now enquiring after a copy of part 1, I found while googling.

I also have the Daily Express Community Songbook (Published by the "Daily Express" National community Singing Movement, Copyright 1927. Another RNIB charity shop find for £4. My big blue book o' folk.

Curious thing is, I bought these books for my father-in-law who used to belong to a Bach Choir. And he has now given them back to me because I go to folk sing around sessions.

Sweet!

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: johnross
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 09:22 PM

I found a first edition of Sandburg's American Songbag two weeks ago at a library sale for US$1. And a lovely collection of soldier's songs from World War I.

Makes it worth plowing through all the hymnbooks and Perry Como sheet music.

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 09:53 PM

that's the great thing about book sales - amongst the total crap left at the end of the day at a school fete I found the program from a later production of the show that started the Australian folk revival. And it only cost 50 cents!

Another treasure is an book on Sydney's social history I found in a bookshop. It was published in the 50's by a well-known historian.

Not only was it in good condition, but it had a cute gift card (I like old cards) glued in the front so I know when Aunty gave it to her niece, and niece collected newspaper clippings from history columns & news items, & it was half-price, too!! A very good bargain for $10.


sandra

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 11:30 PM

Roy Palmer's books are a treasure trove, not just for the songs he digs up but for the information on context and background that he assembles around them. He has been a regular contributor to the Lancaster and Glasson Shanty Festivals.

Ross

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Oct 08 - 03:45 AM

The best buy we ever made was from an second-hand book warehouse one cold December afternoon in West London - a big damp building - bloody freezing.
On one of the rusty Dexion shelves we found a thick softback (not paperback) book with 'Jacobite Minstrelsy' embossed on the cover.
It turned out to be an exercise book containing a collection of around 150 Scots political songs written in beautiful copper-plate handwriting with the tunes hand-written in tonic-sol-fa.
The handwriting deteriorated slightly as you progressed through the book - you could almost see the writer getting old.
The only clue to its origins was a leaflet inside adverising a lantern-slide lecture somewhere in the Highlands in 1909.
It was priced 7/6p on the inside cover and it cost us 75p. We still treasure it.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Hrothgar
Date: 10 Oct 08 - 04:50 PM

I have a copy of the Roy Palmer book, too, Jen. Nice, innit?

Hang on to it. If you really want to get rid of it, I bet Marg Walters will help out.

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Oct 08 - 09:43 PM

The rarest book I ever got access to was a novel by C. Fox Smith, titled The City of Hope. The only copy we could find in the whole wide world was in Tasmania and thanks to Margaret Walters of Sydney, via inter-library loan, we were able to get photocopies of this prairie melodrama.

So if you really want a book and can't find it on the used book websites, check out the libraries!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 10:38 PM

On our recent holiday I found another gem, this time in a 2nd-hand book shop, not an op shop! "Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger: 88 Traditional Ballads and Songs", Oak Publications, 2nd printing, 1964. Ex-library, stamped 'Council of Adult Education Library'. Cost me $Ozzie5.

It's educating me.....I'm an adult......

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 01:19 AM

I'm a sucker for all of those Oak Publications books. I buy every once I can find, and every one is a treasure.
Sing Out! and Peoples' Songs presented songs in more-or-less the same format.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 01:37 AM

They are great books, Joe - I hope I can find more.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 02:33 AM

Jennie, a visiting Qld folkie (Jenny Fitz) was in Sydney last week & found another Roy Palmer book in a second-hand bookshop - it's now in the custody of Margaret Walters!

sandra

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 08:52 AM

Good to know they can still be found! I bought my recent new/old book at a bookshop in Lemon Tree Passage, on Port Stephens.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 09:22 AM

I picked up a leather-bound copy of Baring-Gould's 'Songs of the West' the other week - two quid.

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Folkiedave
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 01:23 PM

Good luck to all book-hunters in charity shops or whatever.

My best was a set of bound copies of Tocher. And I do a lot of shops. Generally speaking if I find one book in a shop there are usually more.

I agree with Joe about Oak Publications - I can sell them as I buy them. Clearly I am not charging enough!

But I may have something if you are looking for something special.

Dave

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: JennieG
Date: 10 May 13 - 02:24 AM

More book sale finds his week! At the annual Rotary Club 2nd hand book sale I bought:
'More Irish street ballads', collected and annotated by Colm O Lochlainn;
'The new national song book', 1958 ed, first published in 1905 (songs from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales);
'Jovial songs for festive occasions';

and the piece de resistance -

Stan Rogers' 'Songs from Fogarty's Cove'.

Total spent was $10 for all the books I bought, there were sewing and cooking books as well as these musical gems. I would gladly have paid much more than that for the Stan Rogers book alone.

Subject: RE: Songbook find at op shop
From: Jack Campin
Date: 10 May 13 - 04:48 AM

Jim, is your "Jacobite Minstrelsy" a collection of extracts from this?

Glasgow, 1829